Page "Mary Cassatt" Paragraph 9

Returning to the United States in the late summer of 1870 — as the Franco-Prussian War was starting — Cassatt lived with her family in Altoona.

Her father continued to resist her chosen vocation, and paid for her basic needs, but not her art supplies.

She placed two of her paintings in a New York gallery and found many admirers but no purchasers.

She was also dismayed at the lack of paintings to study while staying at her summer residence.

Cassatt even considered giving up art, as she was determined to make an independent living.

She wrote in a letter of July, 1871, " I have given up my studio & torn up my father's portrait, & have not touched a brush for six weeks nor ever will again until I see some prospect of getting back to Europe.

I am very anxious to go out west next fall & get some employment, but I have not yet decided where.

" She traveled to Chicago to try her luck but lost some of her early paintings in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Shortly afterward, her work attracted the attention of the Archbishop of Pittsburgh, who commissioned her to paint two copies of paintings by Correggio in Parma, Italy, advancing her enough money to cover her travel expenses and part of her stay.

In her excitement she wrote, " O how wild I am to get to work, my fingers farely itch & my eyes water to see a fine picture again ".

With Emily Sartain, a fellow artist from a well-regarded artistic family from Philadelphia, Cassatt set out for Europe again.